YOUR MONEY

Bernanke – the boy who cried wolf again!

In June, Ben Bernanke, the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, announced to the world that the Fed. would begin tappering off it monthly purchase of US$85 billion of assets once the U.S. economy began to strengthen.

At the time, it caused a massive market sell off as ‘speculators’, i.e., investment banks, derivatives, sovereign funds and anyone with billions to gamble, feared the end of almost-free Bernanke bucks was about to begin.

And again in July, August and now September, the roller coaster ride took place as evidence of a strengthening American economy was clear to all:  the U.SA. 'Main Street' economy has been on a roll for half-a-year already and Wall Street is overjoyed with all 3 major U.S. stock market indicies at records highs.

Even a 680NEWS business analyst Wednesday morning expected Bernanke to announce a reduction because, as he put it, all the extra trillion in Federal debit this program is creating has had also no visible impact!!!!.

But Mr. Bernacke – while reaffirming ‘the slow down plan’ again -- did nothing, not even the slightest reduction in the $85 billion dollar in September purchases.

And, once Bernanke again chickened out, markets went on a buying spree. As the Globe and Mail article, “Borrowers feast on post-Fed euphoria” (taken from the Wall Street Journal – Dow Jones, Sept. 20, 2013, B8) stresses, money is flowing into Emerging market bonds – some $5.8 billion the next day- most in the ‘junk bond’ category; high risk but huge interest rate returns!  U.S. junk bonds also boomed on the good news from the Fed. as part of a Thursday $9 billion U.S. surge.

And the major beneficiaries are not “Main Street” or Corporate/Industrial America (who are sitting on mounds of cash and do not need to borrow) – except for Verizon’s mega-buyout which cheap money will facilitate.

The big winners in America, according to the above article, are US banks who orchestrate mega deal bond sales of mostly non-US countries and firms – using good old Bernanke bucks.

The foreigners who are already, after a day, reaping the benefits are: Armenia who offers 6.25% return on its government bonds, Brazil’s Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social, Russian engineering firm Borets, Swedish bank Svenska Handelsbanken and Japan’s Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp.  

And US banks are lining up mega-Bernanke buck deals for Hungary and Asia.

So thank you again Mr. B for turning world bond markets into a roller coaster for the last 5 months, and helping non-Americans.

What a clever plan to ‘revive' the American economy through trickle-down economics.

Too bad the banks have not bought into your vision but instead become richer by acting as brokers instead of traditional lenders.

Yes, there was a time when the primary role and profit for U.S. banks was in lending money to “Main Street”, but no more.

The lessons of the last 20 years have not been learned by the banks, and Mr. B’s ongoing foolishness continues to undermine the financial health of the government -- and therefore the PEOPLE -- of the United States!!!

TECHNOLOGY

Bye-bye Black-berry

The old song about blackbirds comes to mind when the daily news re: Research In Motion, that glory of Canadaian technology and inventiveness – sadly walks “quietly into the dark”.

The 2 new phone models the Q10 and Z10 have had almost rave reviews from the geek world and BBM messaging is the industry standard for encryption and narrow bandwith = lower cost transmission.

But these innovations and the new operating system and cheaper Q5 version have come too late.

And I did not see it coming either.

What killed the company?

Three things:

1. Samsung and even Apple phones have come up with encryption that meets U.S. government standards – so BlackBerry was no longer the only player here.

2. Companies and governments went on the cheap – allowing employees to use phone they already had – their own purchases.

3. BlackBerry took too long to get its new operating system and related new phones up-to-speed, allowing #1 and #2  to steal their markets.

Timing is everything, and boy was Research In Motion’s timing off – by about 8 to 12 months.  But in the killer world of cell phones, even 4 months late is potentially disastrous.

So good bye old marvel. You have joined the unfortunate Canadian pantheon of the AVRO Arrow and Massey Ferguson – other great icons of Canada’s fleeting innovation glory.

I’m sure your superior operating system and messaging/encryption elements will soon be re-branded by some lucky vulture.

After all AVRO Arrow engineers did finally hit aviation success – through NASA and sending Americans to the moon.

 

 

 

TECHNOLOGY

Apple’s iPhone 5C  - rainbow of stupidity?  

This week’s long awaited and splashy announcement of Apple’s new iPhone 5C – which has been rumoured for a year to be super cheap and challenge the plethora of discount smart phones flooding Asia and the rest of the world – has been a TOTAL and UTTER disappointment, making Apple the laughing stock of the smart phone industry and ensuring its stock price will not only plummet today but for the foreseeable future!

First, at US$550 the iPhone 5C is NOT, NOT, NOT cheap at all compared to the competition. And even with a cell phone plan, Apple’s iPhone 5C will cost US$100 a unit when their newest and far faster, better camera and geek-cool fingerprint recognition model, the new iPhone 5S – is a mere US$100 more for a multi-year plan. (Pricing from G&M, Sept. 11, 2013, B1 and B4)

As well, no one on the internet or from the company has commented on the most basic issue.  Is the iPhone 5C with a plastic frame easily damaged when dropped  -- or not!

The Apple Insider website says the plastic ‘looks durable’ but he has clearly never dropped one or more to find out.

What he says is:

“The new model's back has a ruggedized feel that appears much more likely to survive a fall unscathed than the glass back introduced on the iPhone 4 or the crack-prone, thin plastic shell of the iPhone 3G/3GS. The face of the iPhone 5c is still glass of course (Corning's Gorilla Glass), but being wrapped in a plastic shell should help to mitigate its fragility.” [My underlining.]

Not a very rousing endorsement of previous iPhone body casing!!! [http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/12/hands-on-with-the-new-iphone-5c-color-cases]

In fact, iPhone retailers and internet evaluators always recommend a protective shell and even a screen guard for current or older iPhones because of the thin metal body units, and advise buying the ‘Apple’ insurance package – one free replacement – for an addition $100+!!!

 The Apple units are all that fragile and dentable!!!

Not so for Samsung’s Galaxy line or other manufacturers who have sturdier –if heavier – casings.

 

So, if I choose the iPhone 5C in Blue, Pinky Red, Green, Yellow or White, will I still need to spend extra cash for a protective cover-up case?

If the answer is yes, well then, what is the point of 5 colour choices when I will need to cover up 95% of the casing?

I already have close to a zillion protective case patterns and colours on the market, so what was Apple thinking?

 

PS: The cost to Apple between using aluminum or plastic for the casing is less than 5 in all probability -- even if made in the USA let alone cheap China.

So the ‘new look’ is all cosmetic and silly – if you still need to buy that $10 to $50+ protective case of your choice.

 

PS: Apple already is selling, I just found out from http://appleinsider.com/articles /13/09/12/hands-on-with-the-new-iphone-5c-color-cases, plastic body cases in matching colours with rows of 35 round holes – so you can mix and match and create composite looks.

Of course, it will cost you another US$29 !!!!

Oh well, cell phones are just pricey bling toys anyway.

Right, Apple?

Technology and Gaia

Olympic Deal with the Devil

The Olympic Committee has just awarded Tokyo, Japan with the 2020 Summer Olympics -- the 3^rd Olympics to go to Japan while Istanbul and Turkey are still waiting for their first ‘act-of-acceptance’ by the great Western powers, and Spain’s  hopes to revive its moribund, 25% unemployment ‘economy’  are dashed with its failed bid for a second Olympics in Madrid.

Whatever the rationales for preferring Japan, the current and, in all likelihood, ongoing, nuclear power plant crisis, should have dissuaded the great Olympics heads, but hope and Japanese ‘connections’ probably won the day.

Now, some 2½ years after the original earthquake-tsunami disaster triggered the meltdown of     3 separate reactors at the Fukushima plant, the special storage tanks have been found to be leaking their toxic, radiation-filled water underground, threatening humans in the area and contaminating the nearby sea.

According to published reports – with illustrations no less – (see G&M, Sept.5/13, A10-11) --   Japan has come up with a novel solution; it is planning to build a 1.4 kilometer and 30 meters deep ‘ice wall’ all around the disabled and leaking plant  – a super ‘refrigeration’ unit on a scale never attempted before in human history, so it is untested, and, of course, susceptible to breakdown due to human error, mechanical failure or another act of nature.

Boy, do I feel reassured my 2020 Olympic tickets will be worth the mega-buckets. After all, I’m sure they would be refunded if another massive and more widespread nuclear disaster resulted, or I could be part of the ‘experience’ on a nice, summer day!

 

PS:  To Margaret Wente et al. who have  recently become nuclear power plant fans and see it as the real and only ‘viable’ alternative for ‘carbon free’ cheap energy  -- to save us from Global Warming:  wake up!!!

The costs of nuclear breakdowns are not just in the immediate dead bodies – well under 100 in both Chernobyl and Fukushima – and disruption in energy output.   Any disabled and radioactive chambers or water tanks are lifelong, century long hazards – just waiting to be accidentally uncorked!!!

Put simply, nuclear power is a pact with the devil, and he always gets his due -- sooner or later!

 

PS 2: Both the 3 Mile Island nuclear disaster and Chernobyl were ‘stopped’ with less than 30 minutes to total meltdown and the dreaded China Syndrome.

Look it up, and if you use Wikipedia under “Nuclear Meltdown”, ignore the optimism at the start and go to the last part of the History section, where leading nuclear physicists Ralph Lapp and W. K. Ergen are far, far, far less hopeful.